


Disfigured Hours

by voleuse



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-09
Updated: 2005-09-09
Packaged: 2017-10-04 10:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Subvert our talent or our outrage for a measure of certainty</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disfigured Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Set during S1, no spoilers. Title and summary adapted from Revan Schendler's _The Public and Private Spheres_.

There is a part of Atlantis that Teyla has claimed for her own.

The others may have discovered it previously, but she has never encountered anyone when she visits.

She prefers to be alone, here.

*

 

Once her people left the ancestral city, she managed to keep busy. Aside from her frequent trips off-world, she also travels between the continent and the city, assuring herself that her people prosper. Finding ways to use her position to their advantage.

A well-versed greeting to friends on other planets. Forged alliances with newly-met societies. Gathered resources, skills, knowledge.

In addition, she continues to integrate herself into the pattern of Atlantis. She learns the tricks of their language and the habits of their days.

When she is able, when they are receptive, she teaches them of her own people, and the courtesies of trade.

Sometimes, however, she finds herself with an empty hour, free of responsibility, or the possibility of such.

In these times, she wanders the city.

She is curious, too.

*

 

During one of those odd hours, she follows a twisting set of stairs, to the top of one of the city's spires.

She thinks to watch the sun rise over the ocean, but she miscalculates the time, and the sun appears before she finishes her climb.

The view, even then, is breathtaking. She sits just inside the ledge of the tower, enjoys the vast, open space of the water and sky. It is a comforting sight, and a welcome one, after many days in the divided, enclosed areas of the city.

She sheds her coat, lays it out on the floor. Opens her pack and takes out bread, water, and fruit.

She breaks the fruit's rind with her thumb, and feels some measure of peace.

*

 

She misses her people as she would miss an appendage.

Despite their own isolation, Teyla knows these new Atlanteans don't quite understand this.

They have support from each other, and confidence in their methods.

She does not have the luxury of these things.

She has only hope, and several generations' worth of fear.

So she follows Sheppard through the gate, follows his orders, swallows her doubts.

If they can do what they claim, then her people might be free, someday.

And then she can return to them once more.

*

 

These are the things Teyla thinks upon as she looks across the ocean of Atlantis.

She stares over the water, and pretends she can see the edge of land.


End file.
